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Northfield students perform at the all-district choral festival.

Dear Northfield Public Schools Families:

Thanks to the 65 district stakeholders who participated in the district’s priority based budget reduction teams. I’ve shared the background for the budget reductions in previous family updates. Our reductions are due to:

• Ongoing, incremental declining enrollment due to lower birth rates and lack of available housing.

• Inflationary impacts on district costs.

• Unfunded or underfunded state and federal mandates.

• You can read more about these issues and the priority based budget reduction process here.

These are difficult, but necessary conversations. These stakeholders met for two and a half hour meetings on February 11, 18, and 25. There were five teams looking at budgets in activities, elementary schools, district services, secondary schools, and special services. Each team had a proportional budget reduction target.

At this point in the process, administrators will take the team's ideas and formalize them as a list of preliminary proposed reductions. Here is the remainder of the priority based budget reduction timeline:

• Community-wide meeting and feedback (March 11, 6-8:30 pm; Northfield High School auditorium.)

• Board formally hears recommended reductions at its regular meeting on April 14

• Board approves reduction packages at its regular meeting on April 28

The district will share the proposed budget reductions via email once the documents are complete. This will take some time but will be available several days before the March 11 community meeting.

While we use a solid, proven process that has engaged scores of school community stakeholders, budget reductions are dreadful. All of the programs that we have are valuable to the people who access them. I am genuinely sorry we are in this position, but reductions are the responsible step to ensure the long-term fiscal health of our district.

As always, don’t hesitate to contact me directly with feedback or questions about the school district.

Sincerely,

Matt

--

Matt Hillmann, Ed.D.

Superintendent

mhillmann@northfieldschools.org | 507-663-0629

Congratulations to the Northfield FFA Chapter, who for the first time in over 35 years, has:

• Two FFA State Degree recipients - Keith Harner and Macy Mueller

• 1st Place Entrepreneurship Proficiency Poultry Production - Macy Mueller

• 2025-2026 Region VIII Sentinel - Hector Villanueva

• Northfield FFA chapter region delegate Josie Kuennen

The state degrees recipients, proficiency award recipients and region officer selections were announced after an application process and interviews during the Region VIII Leadership Day on February 7.

Pictured (L-R): Hector Villanueva, Josie Kuennen, Macy Mueller and Keith Harner

Congratulations to NHS Visual Arts Teacher Katherine Norrie, who has been selected as one of 31 semifinalists for the 2025 Minnesota Teacher of the Year award. The list will be narrowed to 10 finalists before the winner is announced during a recognition banquet on Sunday, May 4. We are grateful to Katherine for her dedication to her students and to Northfield Public Schools!

From now until March 15, the Northfield Arts Guild will feature the artwork of students in Northfield. This show includes both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works of art. The gallery is open from 12-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 11-4 p.m. on Saturdays and is located at 304 Division Street.

This year, the district is partnering with KYMN radio to produce the “Doing Good Things for Kids” podcast. During the year, Superintendent Hillmann will interview members of our school community who demonstrate high performance.

This month, Dr. Matt Hillmann talks with Northfield Middle School orchestra director and former Northfield Teacher of the Year Heather Olivier about her philosophy of teaching and her lifelong love of learning.

The calendar for the 2025-2026 school year was approved at the school board meeting on Monday, February 10.

Click here to view the 2025-2026 school year calendar.

• Board packets, table files, and meeting videos are located on our website.
• You can listen to Superintendent Hillmann’s update on KYMN radio.

You can follow the process for reimagining Northfield High School on the district’s website. This link will continue to be available at the bottom of our newsletters.

The Northfield School District does not discriminate on the basis of sex and prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity that it operates, as required by Title IX, including in employment. You can learn more at: https://northfieldschools.org/about/departments/human-resources/ under the Title IX tab.